^^72 7 



Mr. Ingersoll 



AND 



WHAT HE VILIFIES. 



And all the world wondered after the Beast. Apocalypse 13:3. 



BY 



ALLISON DRAKE, M. A., B. S., Ph. D. 






PUBLISHED BY 

THE AUTHOR, 

NEWPORT, KY. 



Mr. Ingersoll 



AND 



WHAT HE VILIFIES. 



And all the world wondered after the Beast. Apocalypse 13:3. 



BY 



ALLISON DRAKE, M. A., B. S., Ph. D. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE AUTHOR, 
NEWPORT, KY. 



\^ 



K 



Copyright, 1892, 
BY ALLISON DRAKE. 



PREFACE. 

Bith andgit seghwser selest. — Beowulf. 

A. D. 

March 12, 1892. 



ME. INGEKSOLL AND WHAT HE VILIFIES. 



Mr. Ingersoll came and went ; and from 
the silence that has ensued, it might be in- 
ferred he had conquered.* He seemed to meet 
with the approval of the vast audience as- 
sembled, and one man was heard to conjecture 
that the " auditors must nearly all be free- 
thinkers." Free-thinkers ! What a significance 
in that term ! Free-thinkers have more free- 
dom in these days than ever before : they are 
at liberty to follow a leader and believe what- 
ever is presented to their credulity ; but they 
must jeer the Bible, — at least laugh while 
others jeer it. The rank and file of the 
mob (if I may unite those terms) of free- 
thinkers have had their mental caliber and 
credulity well described by Professor Hux- 
ley : " One and twenty years ago 
the dominant view of the past history of the 



* Mr. Ingersoll lectured on "Shakspere" at the Grand Opera House, 
Cincinnati, Ohio, Sunday Night, Feb. 14, 1892. To this lecture reference is 
made in these pages. 



6 MR. INGERSOLL AND 

earth was catastrophic. Great and sudden phys 
ical revolutions, wholesale creations and ex- 
tinctions of living beings, were the ordinary 
machinery of the geological epic brought into 
fashion by the misapplied genius of Cuvier. 
It was gravely maintained and taught that the 
end of every geological epoch was signalized 
by a cataclysm, by which every living being 
on the globe was swept away, to be replaced 
by a brand-new creation when the world re- 
turned to quiescence. A scheme of nature 
which appeared to be modeled on the likeness 
of a succession of rubbers of whist, at the 
end of each of which the players upset the 
table and called for a new pack, did not seem 
to shock anybody." 

The situation in the present instance is 
such that should Mr. Ingersoll in cruel ruse, 
avoiding the name, extol the Christian religion, 
he would at regular intervals receive out-bursts 
of applause from his free-thinking listeners, 
though he might have to append the name 
of Voltaire to Scriptural quotations. A great 
thinker would detest this blind and servile 
adoration as a true champion of liberty does 



WHAT HE VILIFIES. 7 

the commending shouts of a howling mob ; 
but this is a species of mental greatness 
scarcely to be expected of a man who as an 
orator may be much in a little, but who 
otherwise shows himself to be little in much. 
And even Mr. Ingersoll's c ratory could sus- 
tain its reputation without that embellishing 
monotony it so often possesses in the line oi 
pet phrases repeated ad nauseam. In the lec- 
ture if he once said "blossoming into beauty," 
he said it a score of times. Everything 
"blossomed into beauty," except the monotony 
of the repetition. The speaker constructed a 
stone arch. I had thought this piece of ma- 
sonry, by reason of the adamantine character 
of the material and the inherent strength oi 
such adjustment, capable of resisting the floral 
stress that I knew about to come upon it ; 
but when the keystone was inserted, the arch 
like everything else "blossomed into beauty," 
and that too before a vine o'ergrew it. This 
is but a sample. However, lest I seem Zoil- 
ean (I hope Mr. Ingersoll will pardon my 
alignment of him with Homer ! ) I shall desist, 
and permit his oratory to pass without further 



8 MR. INGERSOLL AND 

challenge ; indeed I should imitate the Orator, 
if I did not admit that a thrill of admiration 
during his speech possessed me often, and 
especially when, describing the last moments 
of Socrates, he said that "that philosopher 
met death as serene as a star meets the 
morning ; " but here I expected Mr. Ingersoll 
to bring in something about "blossoming into 
beauty ; " for "The Beautiful," you know, (be- 
sides being Socrates's (!) personal 'point de force,) 
was ever until his passing, the quarry of his 
quest. 

I had thought Mr. Ingersoll in treating 
of Shakspere would find his theme so vast 
and deserving that he could afford to inter- 
mit for the evening his customary ridicule of 
religion ; but it was Sunday night, and Mr. 
Ingersoll perhaps thought (for he is so thought- 
ful in such regard), that here would be an op- 
portunity to win great applause and offend no 
one inasmuch as all the theologians to- 
gether with their unthinking herds would be 
elsewhere, performing divine service. Every 
one, however, but Mr. Ingersoll, knew that 
many people — although Mr. Ingersoll profanes 



WHAT HE VILIFIES. 9 

openly their most cherished sentiments — would 
be drawn, by the greatness of the theme, 
from their usual place of worship, thinking 
that at least on this occasion they might, 
without then and there receiving affront, unite 
even with Mr. Ingersoll in paying devotion 
to the " Divinity that stirs within us." In 
this they were mistaken ; for Mr. Ingersoll 
loves laughter; and if he finds his chosen 
theme unsuited to produce it, he knows a 
source never failing of the usual supply. It is 
perhaps too much to ask of Mr. Ingersoll (it 
is certainly too much to expect) that he should 
forego this pleasure at civility's demand. But 
we pass by this display of rudeness to the 
living ; for he even rifles the grave of the 
long since dead, and brings forth mighty 
Bacon to ridicule before an ignorant throng ; 
and when he decried the genius of that 
giant's intellect, how gratifying to the in- 
formed, it was, to hear the unlettered clap ! 

Mr. Ingersoll quoted Bacon, but must 
have read him with the goggles of the "Cynic, 
who never sees a good quality in a man but 
never fails to see a bad one ; who is the 



10 MR. INGERSOLL AND 

human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to 
light, mousing for vermin and never seeing 
noble game." Whenever I read Bacon. I am 
amazed at the force of his diction, and awe- 
struck at the grandeur of his conceptions. 
Nor am I alone in this ; for an impartial critic 
who wrote long before the Bacon-Shakspere 
controversy arose, says, in describing Bacon's 
Essays: "The intellectual activity they dis- 
play is literally portentous ; the immense mul- 
tiplicity and aptness of unexpected illustration 
is only equaled by the originality with which 
Bacon manages to treat the most worn-out 
and commonplace subjects. . . . No author 
was ever so concise as Bacon ; and in his 
mode of writing there is that remarkable qual- 
ity which gives to the style of Shakspere such 
a strongly-marked individuality ; that is, a 
combination of the intellectual and imaginative, 
the closest reasoning in the boldest metaphor, 
the condensed brilliancy of an illustration iden- 
tified with the development of thought. . . . 
Many of Bacon's essays are absolutely op- 
pressive from the power of thought com- 
pressed into the smallest possible compass." 



WHAT HE VILIFIES. 11 

Great and merited as is this praise, Mr. In- 
gersoll's onslaught upon the genius of Bacon 
was such that those unfamiliar with the latter 
and unacquainted with the fierce cynicism of the 
former, must have thought Bacon a man de- 
void of ordinary intelligence. In a man whose 
motto is " Honor Bright," we should expect, 
if we knew him not, to find an uncommon 
endowment of that " spirit which is said to be 
able to raise mortals to the skies ; " at any 
rate, a minimum of "that other spirit which 
would drag angels down." 

Of Bacon's moral character, I shall attempt 
no defense. Genius has often been morally 
weak. Orators have notoriously been cowards. 
Demosthenes deserted the ranks in time of 
battle ; and Cicero, as all the world knows, 
was as timid as a hare. Unless Rumor circu- 
lates a lie of unwonted magnitude, others of 
less oratorical note have sustained that repu- 
tation far in excess of their genius. 

The seeming cause of Mr. Ingersoll's insane 
attack upon the genius of Bacon, is the recent 
suggestion that Bacon wrote the works commonly 
attributed to Shakspere. If Bacon be at all re- 



12 MR. INGERSOLL AND 

sponsible for this suggestion, the world owes him 
a debt of gratitude it will never be able to pay. 
But there is another cause, the real cause, of Mr. 
Ingersoll's spleen, — a cause that will at once be 
made manifest by a quotation from Bacon: "I 
had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, 
and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this 
universal frame is without a Mind. And therefore 
God never wrought miracle to convince atheism ; 
because his ordinary works convince it. It is 
true that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind 
to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth 
men's minds about to religion ; for while the 
mind of man looketh upon second causes scat- 
tered, it may sometimes rest in them and go no 
farther ; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, 
confederate and linked together, it must needs 
fly to Providence and Deity. The Scripture saith : 
' The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God ; ' 
it is not said, ' The fool hath thought in his heart ; ' 
. . for none deny there is a God, but those 
for whom it maketh that there were no God." 
Herein Bacon utters sentiments repugnant to the 
refined intellect of Mr. Ingersoll ; but the latter, 
whose wit ever comes to his rescue, in the midst 



WHAT HE VILIFIES. 13 

of his polished oratory retaliates with an un- 
garnished pun upon the name of the philosopher. 
What a spectacle ! What bathos to be indulged 
in by a chaste and classic orator, by a man sixty 
years of age! We should scarcely expect such 
a puerile exhibition yet. But if Mr. Ingersoll's 
sense of digrtity was lacking, the event showed 
that his judgment was sound ; for most of the 
listeners relished the childish pun as one of the 
finest wit-strokes of the evening. 

Mr. Ingersoll's great fame rests upon his 
destruction of the Bible and upon the impetus he 
has given to free-thought; that is, thought free 
from the hampering demands of logic. Aristotle 
fancied he had classified all possible syllogisms ; 
but he failed to note, among others, the one com- 
monly employed by Mr. Ingersoll and his free- 
thinking disciples — a later enthymeme — wherein 
wit is- the premise and laughter, the conclusion. 
Barring Mr. Ingersoll, the ablest logician I have 
ever known, — ablest in the employment of this 
syllogism, was an orator in Salt Lake City. Think 
not from that name that I am seeking to dispar- 
age Mr. Ingersoll ; for the orator was not a Mor- 
mon ; he was a travelings vender of "Indian" 



14 MR. INGERSOLL AND 

drugs. He stood up in his cart in the middle of 
the street, while his telling wit-logic swept away 
with the besom of destruction all the accumulated 
medical knowledge of the civilized world. I could 
not but recall at the time Mr. Ingersoll's similar 
masterful manner of demolishing- the Bible. 

Mr. Ingersoll's most grievous fault is his un- 
tempered cynicism. His flaw-glasses may be ad- 
mirably constructed for the concentration of 
vision ; but with them he can see nothing but the 
flaw ; and if he should turn them upon that most 
resplendent object of the jewel world — the Koh- 
i-noor — he would behold only imperfection. What 
a distress unto himself must be the Cynic who 
sees throughout all nature naught but jaggedness 
unmellowed ! 

The poems of Homer have delighted the world 
for near three thousand years and during that 
time have been maligned by only one critic 
(cynic of course), though all account their sub- 
stance mostly an alloy of myth ; and whether first 
sung by blind Maeonides or garlanded by 
many geniuses of various times and climes, they 
have ever been and will ever be treasured by man- 
kind as a boon from highest heaven. Likewise 



WHAT HE VILIFIES. 15 

the Bible, even if denied peculiar sanctity and 
ranked among the works of profane genius, will 
still preserve a sacred dignity ; for it is full of the 
finest fruits of highest genius, — full of unrivaled 
beauty. Yet Mr. Ingersoll sees no beauty. Let 
us read the twenty-third Psalm : 

The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want. 
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures : 
he leadeth me beside the still waters. 

He restoreth my soul : he leadeth me in the 
paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for thou 
art with me ; thy rod and thy staff they com- 
fort me. 

Thou preparest a table before me in the 
presence of mine enimies : thou anointest my 
head with oil ; my cup runneth over. 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me 
all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the 
house of the Lord forever. 

We may scoff at the idea that 4 'There's a 
Divinity that shapes our ends," but we must all 
agree that that Psalm is a thing of beauty and will 
remain a joy forever. And for patriotic sentiment, 
the cxxxviith Psalm as far surpasses all else 
as the starry hosts of heaven outshine the glow- 
worms of the dust : 



16 MR. INGERSOLL AND 

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, 
yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. 

We hanged our harps upon the willows in the 
midst thereof. 

For there they that carried us away captive 
required of us a song ; and they that wasted 
us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of 
the Songs of Zion. 

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a 
strange land? 

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right 
hand forget her cunning. 

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue 
cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not 
Jerusalem above my chief joy. 

Mr. Ingersoll has vilified the greatness of 
Moses as he has slandered the genius of Bacon. 
It may be different with orators, but other people 
feel the soul enlarge at an exhibition of bravery 
and strategic skill even when, as in the case of 
Alexander and Caesar, manifested in questionable 
cause ; but when displayed in the noble effort to 
lead one's people from bondage unto freedom, 
these qualities command from all but cowards the 
supremest admiration. Of Moses it has been 
beautifully written : 



WHAT HE VILIFIES. 17 

"This was the bravest warrior that ever buckled sword; 
He, the most gifted poet that ever breathed a word \ 
And never earth's philosopher traced with his golden pen 
On the deathless page truths half so sage as he wrote down 
for men !" 

St. Paul tells us that there are many kinds of 
glory : "The glory of the celestial is one, and the 
glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one 
glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, 
and another glory of the stars." So likewise there 
are many kinds of genius. There is a genius of 
wisdom ; there is another eenius of music, another 
of poetry, and another of goodness. They are 
all heaven-born and divine, but divinest of all is the 
genius of goodness. 

The New Testament is the greatest poem ever 
written. If an ill-fated woman had not already 
borne the name, I would call it Pandora ; for as- 
suredly it is gifted with all the gifts of genius. It 
abounds with the genius of poetry and above all 
with the genius of goodness. If it has mar or 
blemish, it has suffered it in the transit of ages ; 
for I cannot but believe that its authors were 
masters of poetic art and that they possessed the 



18 MR. INGERSOLL AND 

genius of goodness as none others before or since. 
Plato tells us that there is an inspiration of the 
Muses, a madness, which, seizing a pure and 
pliant soul, arouses it and imbues it with poetic 
frenzy ; and, garlanding the numberless exploits 
of ancient heroes, teaches them to posterity ; and 
whoever approaches the gates of poesy and song 
without the gift of Muse-inspired madness, think- 
ing himself all-sufficient through the aid of art, is 
lacking ; and his poetry born of saneness is ob- 
scured by the poetry of madness. 

The authors of Pandora or the All-gifted (for 
I must use the name) had the inspiration of the 
Muses, but instead of madness they had gladness ; 
and their poem gladdens all but the Cynic in his 
earthy, unpoetic madness. Plato wrote divinely, 
and the genius of goodness pervades all that he 
wrote ; but his poetry is ante-classical ; for the 
glow and fervor of the genius of goodness and 
gladness were not felt till a later date. 

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching 
in the wilderness of Judea, 

And saying, Repent ye : for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand. 

For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet 
Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wild- 



WHAT BE VILIFIES. 19 

erness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his 
paths straight. 

And the same John had his raiment of camel's 
hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his 
meat was locusts and wild honey. 

Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, 
and all the region round about Jordan, 

And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing 
their sins. 

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sad- 
ciucees come to his baptism, lie said unto them, O 
generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee 
from the wrath to come ? 

Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance : 

And think not to say within yourselves, We have 
Abraham to our father : for I say unto you, that God 
is able of these scones to raise up children unto 
Abraham. 

And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the 
trees : therefore every tree which bringeth not forth 
good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance : 
but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, 
whose shoes I am not worthy to bear : he shall bap- 
tize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire : 

Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly 
purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; 
but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. 

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto 
John, to be baptized of him. 



20 MR. INGERSOLL AND 

But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be 
baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ? 

And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be 
so now : for thus it becometh us to fulfil all right- 
eousness. Then he suffered him. 

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straight- 
way out of the water : and, lo, the heavens were 
opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God de- 
scending like a dove, and lighting upon him : 

And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 

And they brought a colt to Jesus, and cast their 
garments on him ; and he sat upon him. 

And many spread their garments in the way; and 
others cut down branches off the trees, and strewed 
them in the way. 

And they that went before, and they that followed, 
cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh 
in the name of the Lord. 

Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that 
cometh in the name of the Lord : Hosanna in the 
highest. 

Observe the scene of Jesus and the woman 
at the well. Say Jesus was not divine in the 
Scriptural sense : the negation only heightens the 
effect. What a marvelous conversation for a man 
and a woman sitting at that well in the twilight of 
human progress ! How the story makes one thirst 



WHA1 HE VILIFIES. 21 

for a quaff of that pure Water ! The Man saith 
unto the woman : 

Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst 
again : 

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 
give him shall never thirst; but the water that I 
shall give him shall be in him a well of water spring- 
ing up into everlasting life. 

The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this 
water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. 

How passing beautiful ! But Mr. Ingersoll 
will tell us that Jesus never held that conversa- 
tion, and that it is the production or interpolation 
of a later age. I am not now discussing age. One 
thing is certain : the beautiful is there. If it be 
an interpolation, so let it be. Let the interpolator 
interpolate again ; and if he equal or surpass the 
beauty of the first attempt, let us o'erlook the 
wickedness. Nay more, if Mr. Ingersoll have the 
gift of such interpolation and will not interpolate, 
he ought by threat or torture to be made to 
interpolate ; but ere we begin the torture, let us 
see token of the gift. I go to hear Mr. Ingersoll at 
times when I have grown tired of what is better. 
He talks fairly (?); but his thought and diction 
have not the welling beauty of these "interpola- 



22 MR. INGERSOLL AND 

tions." There is an air of effort, and his gems 
though showing beauty have an artificial cast. 
Truly the genius of poetry and the genius of all 
beauty, goodness and gladness were abroad in 
those days. They say history repeats itself. 
There were a repetition would work us no 
annoy. Listen to St. Paul, poet and orator, as he 
inimitably describes the crowning virtue of the 
true orator. The description is the masterpiece 
of all oratory : 

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of 
angels, and have not charity, I am become as sound- 
ing brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and un- 
derstand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and 
though I have all faith, so that I could remove 
mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the 
poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and 
have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 

Charity suffereth long, and is kind ; charity envi- 
eth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her 
own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. 

If St. Paul spoke as eloquently as he wrote, 
he was the greatest orator that ever lived. All 



WHAT HE VILIFIES. 23 

that militates against this, is the indubitable proof 
left us that he was no coward. There is another 
opposing circumstance, but it is one that I have 
always looked upon as a miracle, the greatest 
miracle recorded in the Bible. It is that a young- 
man who had the good fortune to hear St. Paul's 
oratory should go to sleep in listening to it. He 
paid a speedy penalty, however, in falling from 
the third loft ; and his name, Eutychus (good for- 
tune,) is certainly all that saved his neck. 

As a framer of moral precepts, St. Paul has 
no rival. Isocrates, the original Old Man Elo- 
quent, in his discourse Ad Demonicum, has left us 
an indication of what he could not do ; for, while 
his precepts are intrinsically fair, they lose all 
hue in the presence of the matchless and living 
beauty of the specimens left us by St. Paul. 
Listen again : 

I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies 
of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable 
service. 

And be not conformed to this world; but be yc 
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye 
may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and 
perfect will of God. 



24 MR. INGERSOLL AND 

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to 
every man that is among you, not to think of himself 
more highly than he ought to think; but to think 
soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man 
the measure of faith. 

For as we have many members in one body, and 
all members have not the same office : 

So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and 
every one members one ot another. 

Having then gifts differing according to the grace 
that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy 
according to the proportion of faith ; 

Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering ; or he 
that teacheth, on teaching ; 

Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that 
giveth let him do it with simplicity ; he that ruleth, 
with diligence ; he that sheweth mercy, with cheer- 
fulness. 

Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that 
which is evil; cleave to that which is good. 

Be kindly affectioned one to another, with broth- 
erly love ; in honour preferring one another; 

Not slothful in business ; fervent in spirit ; serving 
the Lord; 

Rejoicing in hope ; patient in tribulation ; contin- 
uing instant in prayer; 

Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to 
hospitality. 

Bless them which persecute you ; bless, and curse 
not. 



WHAT HE VILIFIES. 25 

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with 
them that weep. 

Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind 
not high things, but condescend to men of low 
estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. 

Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide 
things honest in the sight of all men. 

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live 
peaceably with all men. 

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather 
give place unto wrath ; for it is written, Vengeance 
is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 

Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he 
thirst, give him drink ; for in so doing thou shalt 
heap coals of fire on his head. 

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with 
good. 

Whenever I read those sublime utterances, I 
am ravished with their beauty, and for the nonce 
am sirened from all else I have ever felt, thought, 
heard, read or known : Plato is left to repose ; 
Melesigenes in sleep forgetteth his blindness ; 
^Eschines and Demosthenes are couched side by 
side without disturbing dream ; while that modern 
Orator, who despises these and kindred geniuses, 
has gone to that mysterious realm — Oblivion — 
from whose bourn the Cynic ne'er returns. 



„ • 

019 971 817 4| 




